The Marion County Board of Commissioners Monday extended a county-wide burn ban due to dry weather and vegetation until Feb. 10.
A burn ban was initiated last Friday in a teleconference of the commissioners with Emergency Manage?ment Director Randy Frank and County Clerk Tina Spencer because of dry conditions with high winds.
The commissioners approved reducing the number of election voting sites from two to one in both Hillsboro and Marion at Spencer?s suggestion. She said she was anticipating a light turnout of voters.
They also approved recommendations to raise the wages for poll-site workers, election clerks and judges from $90 to $100 a day, and for supervising judges from $100 to $125 a day.
For election resolution board work at the courthouse, the pay was raised for clerks and judges from $7.50 to $8 an hour, and for supervisory judges from $8.50 to $9 an hour.
Spencer told the commissioners it?s tough to enforce dress code standards for workers at the courthouse against wearing blue jeans when outdoor temperatures are bitterly cold.
The three commissioners agreed they want the blue jeans ban upheld anyway, except by prior approval for the most bitterly cold days.
They added that the blue jeans ban doesn?t apply to outdoor workers in departments such as road and bridge, noxious weed or at the transfer station.
The commissioners authorized Rollin Schmidt, director of noxious weed, household hazardous waste and transfer station, to look for a one-ton, four-wheel-drive truck. The vehicle would be used to pull trailers for recyclables to and from communities when the truck currently in use is returned to its primary warm weather occupation of being outfitted with a spraying rig and equipment for killing noxious weeds.
The commissioners accepted both Schmidt?s 2014 noxious weed management plan and his noxious weeds progress reports, as required by the state.
